The Thing (2011)

The horror genre is peaking right now, but these horror films are the ones that give the entire genre a bad name.

With Halloween right around the corner, James Gunn has compiled his top 50 favorite scary movies, and they should be considered required viewing around the holiday.

Science fiction is quite simply one of the most popular genres of film that we have. The creation of far away places and futuristic technology seems to be exactly what the medium of film was designed to create. Science fiction on film has been around for as long as there have been movies. But which ones are the best?

There has been a mystery surrounding John Carpenter's The Thing since it was released back in 1982. Now, it's possible that the movie's cinematographer just let the cat out of the bag.

Here is Cinema Blend's definitive, once and for all comment on the 30 greatest horror films of all time. Will you agree with all of our choices? Probably not, but we're willing to bet that some of your favorites made the cut.

With 10 Cloverfield Lane set to hit theaters this weekend, we can't help but have monsters on the brain. With that in mind, here are our top ten scariest movie monsters.

In The Hateful Eight, Kurt Russell stars as a member of an ensemble that finds itself isolated in a snowy landscape as paranoia lingers in the air and everyone begins to question everyone’s motivations. If this sounds familiar, it’s because that same description could be just as easily applied to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

There are many things wrong with Josh Trank's Fantastic Four (almost all contained in the last half of the film), but one thing that the production definitely got right was the look of Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing.

Horror fans love to argue about which of their favorite movies is the scariest, but a bunch of experts got together and came up with what very well may be the definitive list.

Fantastic Four might have changed The Thing's eye color. The bastards.

Horror movie remakes get a bad rap, but they're not all terrible. In fact, there are some that are pretty damn good, and here are a few of our favorites.

Are you ready to meet The Thing? The hulking Ben Grimm in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot has remarkably kept himself in the shadows. But now 20th Century Fox has unleashed the beast in a brand new photo from the movie.

After months of waiting, comic book movie fans finally got their first look at Josh Trank's Fantastic Four with a debut trailer in late January... but since then we have experienced yet another footage drought. Fortunately, Fox now seems to be ramping up promotion again, as they have dropped four new featurettes about the film online.

It’s clobberin’ time! We finally have our first full look at The Thing from the Fantastic Four reboot thanks to an international banner.

Let’s be clear about something right away: Germany’s Alien Tampon isn’t actually a feature film yet, and this trailer was created as an amazing proof of concept that will hopefully get enough investors involved to get it expanded into a full flick. To be clearer, Alien Tampon NEEDS TO BE A REAL MOVIE!

We have spent months (im)patiently waiting for 20th Century Fox to finally reveal the first look at the new rebooted version of The Fantastic Four, and while the film’s debut trailer is on its way, today we may have a sneak peek at what to expect costume-wise:

Justified Films went a little hashtag crazy to say that it is a leaked image of The Thing from The Fantastic Four. You can tell that there is a lot of green screen going on behind ol’ rock head, so this could be the stand in that visual effects artists will use when they digitally add in Ben Grimm.

After all the body horror, brutal gore, and nightmare-inspiring creature effects, The Thing winds down to a chilling finish. MacReady and his colleague Childs (Keith David) are all that remains of their crew. Having blown up the base in hopes of killing this heinous killer beast, the two — already caked in ice and snow—shiver and essentially await death. But the question lingers—is one of them The Thing?

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen – it was really expensive, because it was going to have to shoot in Las Vegas”, van Heijningen Jr. told Moviehole while out promoting The Thing (2011). Warner Bros. still, reportedly, holds the rights to the project, but it appears to be mired in pre-production hell as Snyder bangs away on the studio’s Superman reboot and van Heijningen contemplates his next move.

When deciding whether or not something on the internet is cool, sometimes all you need to do is look at it in terms of its parts. If you have something that's awesome, and you combine it with something else that's awesome, the result is something that is awesome x2. It's a formula that has worked for centuries, and has given us amazing things like popcorn and movies, beer and sports, and peanut butter and jelly.

For decades, Hollywood’s go-to move when it came to extending the life of a popular franchise was greenlighting a sequel. But with lackluster installments like Lethal Weapon 4, The Matrix: Revolutions and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-- among many, many others-- methodically killing the strategy over the years, something had to change

From Jack Burton to Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell and John Carpenter constructed some truly iconic roles together and R.J. MacReady in 1982’s The Thing is most definitely included. There’s been talk for years about a remake of Escape From New York, but the idea of someone else playing the Plissken role is unfathomable.

Remakes are Hollywood's way of trying to scrape together extra money without actually having to come up with many new ideas. So it's interesting to watch when Hollywood offers up not one, but two remakes on the same weekend, and audiences loudly proclaim with the cash from their wallets (or the witholding of said cash) that they're not interested in watching the past rehashed on the big screen.

Holding a fake gun on a set isn’t scary. Sure, there are things that could potentially go wrong (Research: Brandon Lee), but for the most part it’s pretty safe. A flamethrower, on the other hand, is a completely different story. You’re walking around with a pilot flame and a backpack filled with gas, and if those things get too close together it’s curtains for you. But don’t tell that to Mary Elizabeth Winstead; she’ll just laugh it off.

Still, maybe Hollywood is just going about this all wrong. Making another Thing movie in the same vein as Carpenter's classic can't help but draw comparisons, and most likely suffer from them. So why not take the core concept and explore a different genre? Like, say, a swingin' big band musical? I think it would go...a little something like this...

It’s week two of the Rotten Challenge verse Nate, a.k.a. this dude who showed up in the Comments section. Week one was a clear victory. Week two, not so much, but man if it wasn’t close. I’m even tempted to call it a tie (but I’m sure he won’t want to). This week we’ve got bird watching, feet loosening, aliens invading and Doug prevailing

Helping to bring job to Louisiana by filming in New Orleans can only help a feature that, sight unseen, will be looked at for potentially exploiting Katrina for drama. When it comes to stories set in a post-Katrina environment, it’s damn near impossible to top Spike Lee’s compelling documentaries. But it’s possible that a dramatic narrative can be drawn from this natural tragedy, so long as the script treats each situation with the right amount of respect and reverence.

I feel somewhat strange about suggesting that people should watch uncensored trailers for the upcoming The Thing. While red band and uncensored previews always give the audience a clearer picture about tone and content, The Thing is a movie that relies on the audience not knowing what's going to happen next.

Area 52 has an unmistakable similarity to The Thing in that there is alien mayhem at a secret base in the Antarctic region, but the comparisons end there. Area 52 is run by the government and used to store items that are “out of this world”, so to speak. Run by a small group of government rejects sent there because they weren’t useful anywhere else, when an alien presence hatches without their knowing and starts rampaging. As some of the crew are sort of on the crazy side, expect Area 52 to come with a healthy serving of comedy with the alien horror.

Universal has been marketing The Thing for nearly a year, starting last fall when the film was scheduled for a spring release date, and now again earnest as it prepares to actually hit theaters on October 14. I guess at a certain point they had to start raising the stakes in the marketing, showing audiences more of what they'd be paying to see-- blood and guts and special effects, that is